With companies like Blue Apron and Hello Fresh bringing meal delivery services to the general population, it was only a matter of time until someone came up with the idea to create a baby meal delivery service. The latest entry in this space is Little Spoon.
Little Spoon co-founder Michelle Muller took some time to speak with us recently and explained the mission of their company:
“Modern parents have been forced to choose between two options when it came to feeding their children: Either they can spend hours a day cooking fresh baby food themselves or they can buy highly processed, in-store options that are filled with sugar, low in nutrition, and in many cases are older than the baby eating it.”
She continued, “It is crazy to us that parents have to make the tradeoff between their baby’s nutrition and their own time and sanity. Using the latest in HPP technology, we change all this by making fresh and homemade baby food available anywhere in the nation, direct to your door, and at an affordable cost.”
Little Spoon’s Mission to Change the Way We Feed Babies
Although it’s not the first company to venture into the baby food delivery service market, Little Spoon’s founders intend on successfully leaving a positive impact on the parents (and their infants) that need it.
Muller explained, “We can quickly identify needs and build solutions much faster than products in grocery stores. More than anything, we want to offer a genuine support system for the modern parent.”
The Little Spoon service works similarly to other meal delivery services. It’s subscription-based and offers customers the ability to choose their preferred meal plan. The number of meals range from one meal a day (priced at $4.99 per meal) through three meals a day (priced at $3.99 per meal). Customers can also select which types of food flavors and textures their baby prefers.
Once preferences are set and the service ordered, customers will receive a bundle of food to cover them for a two-week period. It’s an interesting approach, considering Little Spoon’s promise to deliver fresher, healthier baby food options to parents. But they explain what makes their method work where others have failed:
“For years, companies have been trying to create baby food delivery services that are predicated on a model in which they are only able to provide food that lasts two to three days, maybe a week. This model has proven to be challenging to scale and deliver to families anywhere. Using the latest in [high-pressure processing] food technology, we have created a fresh product that lasts for two whole weeks in your refrigerator.”
Setting Out to Succeed Where Others Have Failed
Although meal delivery service companies all tend to have the same mission—to deliver fresh food that cuts down on the time, costs and inconvenience of having to procure ingredients and make it yourself—Little Spoon’s predecessors have not always fared so well in this space. Most recently, Ayesha Curry’s Gather tried adding a baby food offering to their delivery service about a year ago, but it’s quietly dropped off the radar since then.
At this point in time, Little Spoon will have to compete with other food delivery companies trying to make a name in the space (and to do it smarter than their predecessors). Yumi is one of those such examples. They ran a test pilot, successfully, named “Caer” that aimed to get consumer feedback before officially launching (set to come in spring 2017). In addition, Little Spoon finds itself pitted against long-standing champs in the baby food space. According to Muller, “Gerber, which, like all the other options – even the organic ones – on the shelf, is often full of stabilizers, and void of nutrients due to heat pasteurization.”
Little Spoon promises a change of pace. With their high-pressure processing method, Little Spoon offers baby food that is free of fillers and preservatives.
As Little Spoon’s website is currently only accepting applications to the service and not signing on any new customers yet, only time will tell how they do in beating out the competition. Since this is a fairly new trail to blaze, it’ll also be interesting to see if Little Spoon’s technology will be picked up and used by other meal delivery service providers to enhance their own processes.
